Crank: Book review #1

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book takes place in modern time. Not too old and not too much in the future. The main characters consist of Crystal and/or Bree, her father, and some boyfriends. The girl Crystal lives on the West cost too with her mother. All her friends and family are all on that side. Her father lives on the West coast in New Mexico. On the East, she is a straight A student, does nothing bad, and has good friends. Shes your average American teenager from the perspective of grandparents. Then one summer she is forced by court to visit her father. Crystal is okay with her father. She doesn't know too much about him and she likes to keep it that way. She thinks of this visit more as "something you have to do, even though you don't like it". She goes there and meets a boy. The boy is like any girls dream. Cool, calm, handsome, and manly. The boy introduces her to the monster. The monster is a drug called crank. a yellowy powder/ crystal form that you can snort,smoke, and shoot up. When we leaves from visiting her father, she brings back two things. The other personality and her addiction to the monster. She then meets two boys that are both friends that both have connections to the monster. Bree, i mean Crystal doesn't have much money so she is desperate for the monster. So desperate that she let the one boy rape her so she could get a taste of the monster. She then starts a relationship with the other friend and then she finds out she is pregnant. The one boy thinks its his but its really the boy who raped her. The good guy proposes to her and she declines and he goes off to collage. She keeps the baby. The book ends with her keeping clean and doing everything right. Until the sequel.



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Book review # 3. Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is the second edition to the previous book "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins. This book pick up where crank left off. In this book she has her baby. She thinks the baby will keep her occupied to no blow crank anymore, wrong. She starts working at a 7-11 and starts buying glass. Glass is a more pure drug than crank, bigger, stronger, and scarier. Crystal or Bree, how ever you want to look at her is now getting high and crashing. Getting skinnier by the day. Her mother finally kicks her out because of an incident that left her son under a chair and unable to get out because his mother was too high and crashed and couldn't hear him crying. She then starts staying with her new boyfriends cousin and babysits his daughters full time. Crystals mother takes her son and is staying with her at the house. Since Crystal babysits all day, she had to quite her job at the 7-11 in which the owner was a porn dealer and offered her a job as a prostitute but she turned it now anyhow. Now that she's staying at her mans cousins house, he stops by a lot and visits her. Then he goes away and she starts sleeping with his cousin. I cannot tell anymore of the story because then their would be nothing left. This book is definitely a must read though. Not for the young and immature.



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Book review #2. Twisted

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is about a boy who was a nobodey. Someone who kept invisible and stayed unreconized in his home town. His dad only cares about busisness and his mom is on his dads ever last word. He has a sister that just started high school while hes in his last year.



Since no one knew him, no one would care what happened to him. He was bullied by this one kid for years in school since elementry school. Beat up, stolen from, and lied about. His arch enemey happens to be his dads big boss. His bully is also the brother of the love of his dreams.



One night he went out, and didn't come back home. He was arrested for a crime and was sentenced to community service. His monther thought he was becoming a criminal, and his father wanted to talk nothing about it with him. Everyone who went to his school heard what happened also. Some though he was a criminal and could snap any minuite, some gave him highfives down the hallway just because of what he did, and some looked down on him from what he did.



But, before he was arrested he was this little scranny kid. Since the court orrdered community service, he grew alot. Everyday in the summer he was working, working like a cheap laborer but cheaper than cheap. After the summer of the community service, he was built like an animal. Ran as fast as an animal, ate like an animal, and looked as good as an animal.



Now he was a new man. No everybodey knew how much he changed mentally and physically, but they were sure as hell to find out once school started up.



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Reading history

John FitzgeraldReading history essay


Reading history k-10


My reading has had it’s off and ons. Year by year my reading habits would change. Some days I would read nonstop because I had nothing better to do. Other days I still had nothing better to do but could still find something else to do. I hope in the future that I can have a steady reading habit where I find time to read every day, maybe before bed like a normal American.

Kindergarten was very interesting. I couldn’t really read that good but I still picked out books. I have always behind the other kids in reading and writing, and I was tremendously bad at spelling. Normally I would get a book with not many words like “I spy” by “Walter Wick” and riddles by” Jean Marzollo”. I spy books were almost a phase kids went through. Other books I got were pop out books that would tell a story through the picture it has within. Also, I had this interest with dinosaurs, just like any other very young boy in school. I would get big books on dinosaurs, big books with huge pictures. I guess you can say that picture was an enormous part of my kindergarten years.

I went to Delair elementary school In _____________. From kindergarten, first grade, and first grade for the second time I was in the same school that my older sisters and cousins went also. After first grade they built a new __________elementary school about four blocks away. I went to that new elementary school for the second, third, and also fourth grade. During these older elementary years, my interests in books changed a great deal. In second and third grade I was still into “I spy” and dinosaur’s books. It wasn’t until fourth grade that I started reading actually books. In fourth grade I read “Willow” by “Julia Hoban”. I thought this book was far too complex for our reading abilities. The only reason why I remember this book is because I also brought in the movie to watch in school. Elementary school was such a headache.

Middle school was when I really go into books. I went to __________ middle school in __________. The most popular thing to read was the “Blueford” series. The books were never really that interesting to me, so I have not read one of them. I was ore into “Ellen Hopkins” books about drugs, sex, and teenaged problems. They were books I could relate to. I would actually like to read her newest book titled “Tricks”. Her books are always interesting to me. I must have stayed up all night just reading one of her books because I had nothing better to do, of course that was during summer.
Now high school, my prime years, my best memories, is ridiculously interesting. I will read just about anything now. As long as I understand the settings and the main characters then I am set to go to the moon. My personal genre of choice is realistic fiction. Anything that could happen and might happen. I guess you can say that I was always interested in realistic fiction. I am still into “Ellen Hopkins” and I don’t plan on losing interest in her.
I am now in my junior year of high school. My sophomore year was filled with reading. I remember being in class and watching kids read under the table and then get in trouble by the teacher. I was always wondering how a love for reading could become that strong. Well this last year I realized it, because I also got in trouble for reading while I had work to do. I realized books are very comparable to movies. They say all the same things but you just picture it to however best fits you. This is where your imagination comes into play and you start being creative.
Unfortunately I did not read over the summer. Well I did read just not actual novels or books. I read a great deal of informational text about cars, motorcycles, and wireless internet routers. I do plan on getting back into reading since now I have the school’s library in my control.
My reading history habits have change throughout the years, but whose hasn’t? If you did not change then you would not be able to adapt. It’s just a part of growing up. I hope as I grow up even more that I do not lose an interest in reading. I see myself as going to a coffee shop and drinking coffee and reading outside of the store. I could be one of the people that when they want to relax they read. Oh how I am interested in how I will become when I grow old.

Song interpretations

The Fratellis- Whistle for the Choir

Well this song is about a boy who likes a girl but is going crazy because he doesn’t know if she likes him back. That’s the whole theme of the song from my point of view. It takes place in the city and late at night. The girl says the she’s not lonely, like she already had a man or her eyes on someone else. He keeps talking about how she is “irresistible” and how obsessed he is with her. Also he tells us that his heart is broke already and he is trying to fix it through her, he wants to love her and he wants her to love him back. He calls her a “stupid girl” because she doesn’t know what she has in front of her. In front of her is him and if she doesn’t take him then she’ll regret it because he would have treated her right. This relates to William Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Theme” because it’s all about love. Someone loves someone else and they don’t know if that someone else loves them. It’s like a love square because there’s so many people involved.

The Spill Canvas- Staple gunned
This song is about a boy who has just met a girl. He is already regretting what he hasn't done yet and what he should have done. He then makes up all these similes and metaphors to describe how much he loves her already. I can tell this is not love though, but lust just as in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". This relates to the story because all the boys love another girl because of lust and not because of love. When the one man wanted to sleep next to the woman in the Forrest, which showed that he wanted her for all the wrong reasons.

Dashboard Confessional- Hands down
This song is about a boy who is with a girl and they are pretty much having the best time with each other, just the two of them. It’s the feeling that they have because it’s just him and her and no one can say anything about what they do or how they should act. Like cuddling for instance, some people may see it weird; your mom probably thinks it’s weird when they see you cuddling with a girl. They don’t have to worry about this now, because it’s only them two. Since he’s having such a good time he is willing to die, just so he dies happily.

This song describes how extreme the characters are about explaining their lying love for one another. “This air is blessed, you share with me", reminded me of how they are also so religous.

Say Anything- Alive With the Glory of Love
The song was said to explain Max Bemis's grandparents when they were in the holocaust. It using words like "Boot stomped meadows" and "Treblinka". The song explains how his grandparents were separated but still never lost their love for each other. The video for this song shows his grandparents as children sneaking out of the work camps in Germany to see each other just to get a kiss before they are found and taken back to their separate camps. This relates to the book "A midsummer Night's Dream" because the characters Hermia and Demetrius are not suppose to see each other by order of Hermia's father. But they do anyway; they sneak out into the woods to live together forever.

Pink Floyd- Wish you were here

Now there are many, and I mean many interpretations for this song and I do not wish to research all of these because I would get nowhere so I decided to give you my own interpretation of the song. Well mine is that there were a couple, woman and male of course and they broke up or were separated somehow. The man is singing and describing how she lost all hope for everything. That she or he does not have a good understanding of the world, that her understanding of the world is all messed up, like she was brain washed or a tragic event happened. He also explains how she can't tell things from other things and that she is trading thing for things that she shouldn't. He says that they are both two lost souls that keep going over the same tracks and same paths. He just wishes that she was there with him.

Spanish essay in the beginging of the school year.

John



Spanish 2



As a person I am John Fitz. I am a skateboarder, biker, athlete, and interested in computers. Others see me as a typical white kid. Someone who skateboards, is crazy, will do anything, listens to death metal, and is just unnatural. Others see me as normal because they do not stereotype me are into the same things I am into. In ten years I see myself as in my prime. Not to old to settle down and too young to be told what to do. I can see myself with a steady job that I have already started working myself up the chain. When I’m twenty-six I want to still be skateboarding and want to be still athletic. I want to be one of the people that are well rounded in every field possible. I want to be good at everything know to man. Girls have always been my weakness; I would do anything for girls, well not really everything but a lot to make them happy. My knees are week from the sports that I do so now I have problems in my knees. I am very strong in endurance. I have that attitude that if people are expecting me to do something a win I will do it. Or if I am competing against other people I will make sure I come in first or pretty close to it. Most people give up too easily, not me. I just keep my mind think about something that will pass the time and keep doing what I am doing. My family is very funny. Like the first time you come over they will fart and burp and blame it on you just joking around. They are a big spending time together family, I’m still getting used to that. Most of my friends are athletic or are just cool to be with or were once athletic. They are only my close friends. I deal with problems by being alone. If I am alone I can just get over the problem and forget about it. That’s all problems are, things to get over and forget about.



I am a very good student. As long as I do the best way I learn and the teacher stays on me. I learn best by being alone. This creates fewer distractions for me while I’m working. From what I know about the ISP program so far, it’s going to be hard managing my own time. Normally teachers have deadlines for certain parts of a project. I’m the type of student that wastes time because I’m sitting there with someone and they keep talking and I can’t pay attention. I have learned that friends in high school done stick with you forever. Most of the people I meet I will never talk to again when I grow up. I learned that because I do not talk to a lot of people I went to middle school with, because most of them went to Pennsauken high. I mean every now and then I get and IM or a comment on myspace from some but that is about it. Some qualities of a teacher that I do not like is when teachers make the students do work over and over again. Also when they write the question down and answer it in a complete sentence. Especially when you get the really long questions where you have to explain. The only thing that stops me from learning is people talking or the teacher telling the students to do one thing then telling us to do another. Like teachers not being able to make up their mind. I am a serious student because I am hungry for knowledge. They only reason why I didn’t go to Pennsauken high school is because I wanted a good education in high school and I wanted to learn a trade and get a head start on my future job. For teacher to help me to learn, they must go over every single detail when I ask a question for it. If I do not know a certain part of something then it’s like you talking to be never even helped at all.



In a friend I look for someone who is relaxed and not all hyper. Someone who is athletic and into the same things I am into. I am a good friend because I do not create drama. I do not follow the theory of “hated by association”. And I will just tell you straight up how I feel about how you look, act, or talk to me. Even if you were catering to my every need I would tell you. The most difficult thing I have to deal with is people getting annoying. Some people are really cool at first. They make jokes, play around, relaxed, and don’t yell. Then some of them people start talking louder and more, and always playing around and always making jokes that are not funny. Then they start getting mad about how everyone is just sitting there looking at them. And at that time everyone is loosing respect for that person. Well enough about other people now. Some activities I would like to get involved with this year is weight lifting. But the way my knee is right now, I don’t thing I am going to be able to get into it. Also I’m not really excited about staying after school until five o’clock just to work out. By that time I’m not going to be getting home until six thirty, then once I get home I will have to do the tons of homework I have. Then I probably eat and sleep then wake up for school tired. All that right there just tells me its just going to be a hassle if I do it. And my social life is pretty good. I am happy with whom I hang out with and whom I talk to. I can tell from last year that my years in high school are going to be above average in fun then normal students.



First of all, what does diversity mean? Being diversie is being different. Everyone is diverse because everyone is different. I feel as if I am a very diverse person. I like to think of myself as modest. I am not like others neither. I have my own opinions. When I was growing up, I had a wide variety of friends I hung out with. Some were African American, Porto Rican, white, Christian, Muslim, catholic, atheist, and even bilingual people. Unfortunately I do not speak any other languages. I also find myself an open-minded person when it comes to information, if it is just rumors then I do not believe then and I become stubborn. The word diversity means to me that it’s a matter of differentials between you and the world. Tolerance is something I put up with a lot. I tolerate my uncle, family, girlfriend, friends, and some people I just do not like. Acceptance is almost the same meaning I guess but you don’t think of it any way. You just don’t think much of it, like it doesn’t even bother you. Well I think that my outlook on the world is different from my families and friends. I am a realist; I like to see everything how it is and the truth of it all. I do not need and pretty blanket or story to cover up what people may think I’m too young to know about. The people in my town don’t really think. They just try to get by and create drama because they have nothing to lose. And I don’t believe in god anymore, so religion does not affect me. This is little about me just in case you forgot who I am over the summer. Thank you for your time.

Text to pictures.

This blog entry I'm going to import images of song lyrics so you can have a better imagery of the song and the view that I get when I listen to the song. This is " And the cradle will rock" By " Van Halen"

Ow
Oh yeah, get up
Ow! (Yeah)
Ow! Ow!
Well, they say it's kinda frightnin'

How this younger generation swings

You know it's more than just some new sensation
Well, the kid is into losin' sleep

And he don't come home for half the week

You know it's more than just an aggravation

And the cradle will rock
Yes the cradle, cradle will rock
And I say rock on. Uh! Rock on

And when some local kid gets down
They try an' drum him outta town

They say, "Ya coulda least faked it, boy"
Fake it, boy (Ooh, stranger, boy)
At an early age he hits the street
Winds up tied with who he meets
An' he's unemployed (Unemployed?) Ow!



And the cradle will rock. Ow!
And the cradle, the cradle will rock
An' I say rock on. Oh, say, rock on

(Guitar Solo)



Have you seen Junior's grades?
Ooh

Ow!

And when some local kid gets down
They try an' drum him outta town



They say, "Ya could've least faked it, boy. Faked it, boy"
And so an early age he hits the street
'N winds up tied with who he meets
An' he's unemployed. His folks are overjoyed

And the cradle will rock
Yes the cradle, cradle will rock
I say rock on. Hey! Rock on

Rock on. Rock on. Rock on
This ain't never been new, babe, child. Ow!
Rock on, wow! I said...
Rock on. Rock on. Oh, oh, oh
Rock on. Oh, ow, ah, ah, ah
Rock on. Rock on. Rock on 

A lit Letter I wrote awhile back.

Forrest Gump




I’ve been reading very realistic books lately, books that could come to life, books that I could even live in. This book may even be considered a classic. The book “Forrest Gump” is written by Winston Groom. This book is good for anyone who has seen the movie or has seen parts of the movie. This book is realistic fiction and ranges from the high school to adulthood. The story is about a mentally ill person. Normally they refer to this as retarded or him being just an idiot. Throughout the entire story Forrest tries to do the right things but gets pulled into the wrong things and is taken advantage of by almost everyone he knows.

One of the important parts of the book is when Forrest went into space. He went up into space with an orangutan and a female human. The female human was rude and needy, the orangutan was scary. In the end before they got out of space they all became friends. It’s not when they got out of space either, it’s how they got out. The orangutan was getting angry and started pulling some wires out of the side of the ship which caused some malfunctions and made the spaceship fall out of orbit and back into earth. They crash landed near an island. They all landed safely and were unharmed. The island was covered in cannibalizes and were ready to eat all of them. Luckily there was a man there who spoke very good proper English and he was the leader of the tribe. Instead of eating them they put Forrest, the lady and the orangutan to work in the fields to grow cotton. They were there for four years straight. While they were there the leader of the tribe taught Forrest to play chess. After four year of playing the leader never beat Forrest. But night they played and the leader was about to win, that’s when Forrest said he had to go pee and got the other female astronaut and the orangutan. They all started to run from where they were and hop on a boat. Once they did the tribe came after them and caught them once again. They were going to eat them now, since the tribe villagers were dripping in their mouths to eat all three of them. Once they were about to from them in the pot a rival tribe came up and took hostage of the tribe and the tree of them. That rival tribe were about to drop the leader of the cannibal tribe in when he said where he was going to make his next move in his chess game to beat Forrest. Then he was thrown into the boiling pot of water and was cooked. Then the tree astronauts conked the rival tribe leader over the head and ran like crazy.

Personally I think the book was a little more exciting than the movie. I’ve got to say though, the actor “Tom Hanks” made the movie very good though. I would recommend this book to anyone who has seen the movie and to anyone who likes books about the old good day. This book is just plain awesome.

This was for a perswasive essay this past year.

Dear Mr. Corzine

Is your life really yours?



Life is something that is sacred, something that you can say is truly yours and nobody can say otherwise, wrong. Your body is the governments. I am here to fight for assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is a way for people to commit suicide with their dignity. This lets them die without any pain, cuts, bruises, and lets them have a funeral with an open casket. The people who create these devices use chemicals and other ways to die with no pain. You have created your life, you are sick of life, you want to end your life, but you can’t because it is not yours. Assisted suicide should be legal in all states and all places over the world.

You should have the right to die. You have to have the right to die. Some people do not wish to commit suicide in an unordered fashion. Most people want to die with dignity. This is a way for people to die with dignity. We chose all the decisions for our life and we even pay money for our life. We have to pay for our birth and our funeral. We are in control of our lives and we live them. We should definitely know if we want to keep on living or wish to part to the other world.



If assisted suicide becomes legal, this will open up new job opportunities. This means more money coming into the state and more money in taxes. Doctors will be paid more for the service of death. Will’s will be able to be fully written for the person if they set up a particular date. Doctors can come up with new drugs and methods of assisted suicide; it will eventually become an art of killing. More the deaths then more the money.



What do we get from people who wish to end their lives? We get nothing; we get no help, no sympathy and no remorse from them. They are just dragging other people down into their own problems that they have and create. If a person is not happy about being alive then they do not deserve life. If assisted suicide become legal, it will provide an opportunity for people to take the first step to helping others out.



On the other hand everybody can’t stay depressed and unhappy with their life forever. Sooner or later they will realize they are happy to be alive. They will look forward to do things in the future; they will have hopes and dreams and will be almost a normal human being. In the history of the United States, suicide or expected death has always been a tragedy. Maybe assisted suicide will give only hurt more than good.



But to conclude everything I have said, I am still for making assisted suicide legal in all states and around the world. If we do it will give us more rights, make us money, and will not have to waste resources to people who are not worth the wait. Assisted suicide should be legal and that’s final.

shi no numa

This is a poen I wrote for a project we did on the atomic bomb.

shi no numa

A day that was so perfect,


A day that went by so quick.

the love of my life was going to be with me.

He even asked my mother if we could hang.

The boy plays in a local band,

a band that which i adore.

Nice swing band with big beats.





I wore a flowery dress that i knew he would like,

I know he would like it because my mother doesn't like it.

My father is at work still and know nothing about this boy.

he's been at work for 8 months.

The boy that i will someday love and have young with.

I know the day would come,

but not like this.





I walked to the movie therete that he told me to go to.

It was about 4 miles but i didn't mind,

as long as i saw his face.

an ariel assualt was called earlier but was then dismissed.

The sky was blue, my father out and about, and nothing was to worry.

I heard a whislteing sound in the air.

I looked but could not make out what it was.

It looked like a plane dropped it.

But i ignored it as it were just an angle falling out of the sky.







I heard a bang,

I heard a thump,

I heard screams,

I dropped to the ground,

but was too close.

I felt a quick rush of heat across my back.

It was about to get very intensse then is stopped.





I saw my town and how it was turned into a childs sand chasle.

It was like I never even existed.

Just a peice of collateral damage.

I was 15 and gone.

so i am like tottally not doing this on my ps3 right now.

ISP risk game

This new isp project it very cool. It is simular to the game risk. I'm not very familar with the game but I have a good idea of the game from what has been explained to me from the project. But I think the other students don't have the basic stratigies for war. These kids are talking about making treaties and then back stabbimg each other. Its so confussing. Nothing has been put on paper yet and they want to kill each other.

Socail networking sites

You've probably heard of social networking sites. If you haven't then you must be living in a cave and still hunting for food. A social networking website is a service that focuses on people being in contact they know or would like to know. Its almost like an online community. They are able to share ideas, activities, events and interest within their own community or with everyone on that website.

They big thing about these sites are predators. I'm not talking about lions, tigers, and bears (oh my). But sexual predators that have been prosecuted and are know to the public. Every sex predator in the united states are posted on the internet and that information is legally aloud to be up there. With these social networking sites, it is very easy for a sex offender to pretend to be someone else that they are not. Lets say a 40 year old man that looks like image A could pretend to be a 24 year old female in image B.





Now we know young boys. Everybody knows young boys are just horn-balls. If a 24 year old girl messages a 14 year old boy, hes going to message back and want to get to know her cause he thinks she is interested in him. Then they start talking more and more, then sooner or later, they end meeting up somewhere. Thats when the man comes up in a white van and snatches him up.

Well that's the thing about sexual predators, but lets get back to the point of "formspring.me". This socail networking website lets people send annonomuse questions/statements. The user has the choice to answer the questions or to delete it. The questions are then only public when the person answers them. Now i don't know why but even when people talk crap about you on here, the users normally still postes the questions to the public. Actually i have myself, but i cannot recall a reason why i posed them publicly. I guess its because the delete options only apears when you flash your cursor over it. The delete option just isn't in your face, you have to look for it.


Formspring.me is even easier for sexual predators to luare kids/teens into their trapt. Formspring.me only askes for name/user name, state, and a picture if you want it there. There are no friends and no extra information to see if a person is lying about who they are. If your commenly sense smart, then you can pick out preditors and people beliveing they are someone else.


If a person has only been using the site for a week or two and they have 300 friends already, the best bet, its a bot or someone just adding as many people as they can. Also if a person doesn't have any pictures, or pictures of just their body, or professional pictures; its probly not a real person. Alot of people also say they are actors or actresses and then have crappy pictures.

Thing is, you can't belive everything you see on the internet. Alot of stuff is fake and alot of stuff is real. You've just got to know how to differenteriat the two.

Cardboard city.

Cardboard city.

Cardboard city is run by “Mary, Queen of all Saints” parish. Karrie M. Davis runs the actual youth group, which I’m involved in. Cardboard city just passed its fourth year in the making. It normally only last one night but we decided to make it last two nights this year. Cardboard city started on April 16, 2010 Friday at 6:00pm. We were not fed dinner that night and we were forced to make houses out of a limited amount of cardboard and duct tape. We do lessons about the catholic religion, feel how it is to be homeless, and do service projects all day for others.

The night that we got there, we had to get water, while it was raining. This cardboard city, we were to have no running water at all. So if we wanted something to drink, then we would have to walk to my house, which was exactly 2.4 miles, and about 47mins worth of walking (check “327 velde ave. Pennsauken NJ, 08110” to “4851 Camden Avenue Pennsauken, NJ 08110-1920” on Google maps). The group I had walked slowly, so I would say it took about an hour and fifteen mins to get to my house. As we were walking there, we had a crate filled with empty water bottles and a big Gatorade jug and we filled it all up with water from the hose. We then had to walk back to the Church while it was raining and will all the water bottles and jugs filled with water.

We have a curfew of 1:00am. It rained pretty hard earlier but stopped and was only drizzling. Throughout the night it rained hard on and off. That morning we were fed a limited one small bowl of cereal. Then we were split up into groups that would do different service projects. One group stayed at the church and painted children’s faces at a fair that was being held. Another group went into Camden to clean up crack dens, and the other group went into Philly and begged for money on Market Street.

The people who stayed at the fair had the easiest job. They go to sit at a table and do what every the kids wanted them to do. Sometimes they would get done doing a half an hour’s worth of work on a kids face and then another one would come up and ask for the same thing. They were not allowed to accept any food from anyone and were not allowed to buy any food of any sort. The only thing that they could put in their mouths was their thumb and water from their water bottle.

The teens that went into Camden had to have a strong stomach. They were forced to paint, clean up, and take insults from anyone walking by. The house they were cleaning up were called “crack den”, in which homeless people would live there and some people would do drugs there. They had to be careful of what they touched because there were feces in the corners of the rooms and used needles on the ground that they had to clean up.

I was not involved in any of them group but was involved in the group that went into Pennsylvania. We stereotyped the homeless outlook by making signs on cardboard. Some of us put funny things like “ I bet you can’t hit me with a quarter” and “ Ninjas have taken my family for ransom. Need money for kung-fu lessons.” We sat on the sidewalk and begged for money. The people holding these signs did not get much money. Some people were being very flamboyant with speaking to people on the streets saying that we need money to go back home. Originally I just sat on some steps, put a bowel out, and looked down every time someone walked past me. I did not get much money because I was holding one of the not so serious signs up. I then put a statistic on the sign about homeless teens in America. It was something like “ there are about 500,00 homeless teens throughout America and most of them are homeless because of abusive/ sexual exploded guardians and family.” People walked by and stared and read the sign until I looked them in the eye and then they turned around.

There was a very awkward moment while I had that sign up. As I was holding the sign, a buss filled with high school teenagers went by and stopped at a red light where i was. The whole bus was dead silent because they were all reading my sign. They said nothing nor made any faces towards me. They just read the sign and then looked at me for explanation.

Since I was sitting on the step all by myself with no sign at one point, people really thought I was homeless. I had a sense that people started to look at me differently. Like I dropped off the social class level and I was a peasant back in the renaissance time. Like people didn’t even think of me as a human, more like an animal that nobody wants to take responsibility for.